Girls gone Greek

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Take a look at Katy DeGrass warming up to rapper 50 Cent in the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity house on the University of Maine campus. See her flowing auburn hair, string of pearls and white skirt accented with pale pink sequins and beads sway to the beat.

The UMaine freshman, who served on the senior council and civil rights team at Camden Hills Regional High School, and her Alpha Phi sorority sisters will head out later with the brothers from Alpha Gamma Rho to an Orono nightclub. DeGrass sticks like white on rice with the sorority’s other pledges and members. They pose for the camera in the fraternity’s dining room where pictures of past brothers line the walls.

“You can find me in da club …” 50 Cent chants over the speakers as the 20 or so young women huddle for photos soon to be pinned in their scrapbooks and on bulletin boards. “Katy, stand here!” one Alpha Phi sister says while another calls out, “Smile, everyone!”

DeGrass is one of 45 freshmen who opted to join one of the six sororities at UMaine this fall. She knew something about Greek life through her two brothers, who both belong to fraternities. She saw Alpha Phi – the 2005 Sorority of the Year on the Orono campus – as a vehicle for making friends and doing community service.

“My brothers talked about Greek life, but that’s not why I am doing it,” related the 18-year-old from Rockport, noting Alpha Phi’s “Move your Phi’t” event to raise funds for the National Heart Walk. “Philanthropy’s a big draw for me. I want to know that I’m joining something that is making a difference in the community.”

DeGrass and her newfound Alpha Phi sisters are among a growing number of young women nationwide who are electing to join sororities. Unlike men’s college fraternities, many of which have lost membership due to hazing and other highly publicized incidents, sororities have experienced an upsurge in membership, which hit an all-time high of 80,000 last year, according to the National Panhellenic Conference, the umbrella group for sororities.

Martha Brown, the National Panhellenic Conference’s chairman, says sororities have shed their stereotypical image of the 1990s. She says sisters typically are not ditzy airheads chasing after Abercrombie-type guys.

“Sororities try to distance themselves from the airhead-type people that are sometimes portrayed in the stereotypes, and the ‘party-party’-type people,” said Brown, an alumna of Delta Gamma sorority at the University of North Texas in Denton and grandmother of three. “That is not what we are. That is not true to our being.”

Alexandra Robbins, a 1998 Yale graduate and the former New Yorker investigative reporter who broke the story about President George W. Bush’s C grades at their shared alma mater, takes issue with Brown’s and others’ rosy picture of Greek life in her latest book, “Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities” (Hyperion, 2004). The 27-year-old journalist spent an academic year hanging out undercover with four sorority sisters she calls Amy, Vicki, Caitlin and Sabrina.

Robbins, who also wrote “Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis” and “Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League and the Hidden Path of Power,” spoke or met with several hundred sorority sisters, pledges, alums and parents.

“I learned that many of the rumors (as well as the fantasies) about sororities are indeed staggeringly true, including those concerning loyalty, sex, conformity, drugs, violence, verbal abuse, mind games, prostitution, racism, forced binge drinking, nudity, cheating, eating disorders, rituals, “mean girls,” and secrecy,” Robbins writes. “But not all sororities encompass these experiences; and of the sororities that do, not all consist of girls one would necessarily consider ‘bad.'”

Robbins found that sororities without houses tend to be tighter, healthier sisterhoods.

“If you force 100 girls to live in a house together, you are going to have issues,” she said in a recent phone conversation.

For prospective rushees, Robbins recommends finding out as much as possible about a sorority before rush. She notes the annual six-day marathon is not enough time to choose sisters for life based on quick conversations and brief interactions.

She also urges parents to discourage their daughters from pledging a sorority that demands “silence” during the pledge process.

“Always keep lines of communication open,” she urges. “Find out how the process is going.”

At UMaine, sororities are experiencing a resurgence. All six chapters on campus are steadily gaining – not losing – members. Five years ago, Alpha Phi had only ten sisters, but now boasts 50. In 2002, only 15 women belonged to Delta Zeta, but its ranks have risen to several dozen.

Rush – referred to as formal recruitment at UMaine – is held the second week of the first semester. The process kicks off with a collective open house held nightly by the half dozen chapters on campus. At this year’s event, Alpha Phi, Delta Zeta, Chi Omega, Phi Mu, Pi Beta Phi and Alpha Omicron Pi elaborately decorated rooms to stand out and lure rushees. Delta Zeta sisters chose a tropical Hawaiian theme, donning muumuus and adorning their space with leis, coconuts and palm trees. Phi Mu went with pink – every imaginable shade – in the form of ribbons, hearts and crepe paper to brighten its display.

The second night, sororities outline their social and community activities. For instance, Delta Zeta stages the Turtle Tug on Maine Day in which the sisters engage in a wacky tug-of-war in a sea of green gelatin while Alpha Omicron Pi hosts the “Mr. Fraternity” pageant as a fundraiser.

The third night, prospective pledges make their top three choices known in order of preference. The process ends the fourth night when sororities issue bid cards or invitations to rushees.

Jennilee Holmes, vice president of recruitment for UM’s Panhellenic Council and a member of Chi Omega, oversaw and helped orchestrate formal recruitment for 2005. The weeklong series of events, she says, is plenty of time to sample a sorority.

“It’s all about opening your mind and taking in the experience, as with anything you’ll pursue,” said the poised blond art history major.

Holmes knows about Robbins’ book, but says the Greek life painted in “Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities” does not mirror her experience in Chi Omega.

“It’s nonsense,” the senior said. “[Sororities] are just further life support for independent women. I didn’t want to join a sorority when I did, and now I’m ever so proud.”

For Katy DeGrass, the Alpha Phi sister last seen warming up to rapper 50 Cent, belonging to a sorority has been a positive. Her college social life got off to a lively start with the outing to the Orono nightclub, Ushuaia, with the brothers from Alpha Gamma Rho. The Alpha Phi sisters, clad in white, cut a striking sight in the glittering strobe lights and fog swirling across the dance floor.

“You Greeks are the backbone of this university,” the deejay yells over the microphone. “Don’t let the administration tell you anything different.”

On Halloween, DeGrass dressed as a firefighter – complete with red makeup, faux orange eyelashes and a tiny red fire hat – and her sorority sisters had their fortunes told and sampled the “Morning Spring” and “Female Aphrodisiac” as part of the “Late Night in the Union” party in UM’s Memorial Union.

Last weekend, DeGrass and other new Alpha Phi members were formally initiated into the sisterhood. Members were mum about the proceedings save for the fact pledges had to wear white and were prohibited from wearing makeup or jewelry except for wedding or engagement rings. Afterwards, the women celebrated over brunch at Governor’s restaurant in Old Town.

DeGrass says her sorority sisters have become a family of sorts. They usually get together at least twice a week for a social function or to just hang out.

“I love the girls, they’re so nice and amazing,” reflected the freshman from Rockport. “I really love being in Alpha Phi.”

Ernest Scheyder, a NEWS copy editor, is a senior at UMaine and a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He can be reached at ernest.scheyder@umit.maine.edu.